Regarded by many as the best Metallica songs. The song portrays a young soldier who is returning from war, suffering massive damage from a landmine. He cannot speak, he cannot move, he is essentially a head with no body.

Metallica did two versions of this song originally, the original and the rare version. In the rare version, during the long instrumental sections it is filled with speaking, the speaking of the soldier in his mind, the doctors, and his father. The boy pleads for his father to kill him, the doctor realizes the mistake of taking this patient and making him live through this "hell".